Folding apparatuses for web-fed rotary printing presses are well-known. One such folding apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,759. In it, folded sheets are delivered via a first, higher speed belt system to a retarding path, the belt system being close to the printing press and having upper and lower belts. The folded sheets are delivered to a second, lower-speed belt system farther from the printing press and again having upper and lower belts, or to a pair of folding rollers. The folded sheets are processed in succession, or in other words serially. This makes it necessary to deliver them in a precisely defined manner to the folding apparatus, and to assure, for instance with the aid of the retarding path described therein, a certain speed of the folded samples as they pass through the folding apparatus. A folding apparatus of this kind, at relatively high processing speeds, rapidly reaches its limit capacity depending on the type of fold and the type of paper. Since the associated web-fed rotary printing press as a rule has a higher capacity than the folding apparatus following it, this means that the web-fed printing press cannot be run at top speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,365 issued Jun. 20, 1989 discloses an apparatus for receiving and conveying folded products in which the folded products are stored next to one another. An approximately zig-zag carrier structure, made of plates which, by way of example, are elastic and which are welded at the contact points with one another, can be transported along guide rails. The carrier structure can be taken from an empty storage means in its compressed form and then pulled or pushed into an unloading, loading or mixing zone, where the spread-apart carrier structure is ready to receive folded products. After that, the folded products can be compactly stored in a storage means on or in the carrier structures.